Behavior of Indian crowds - An Analysis - Part I

[Vijay Arumugam]

Why do Indian crowds throw bottles and other objects into the ground? Do they throw the same at their own players out of frustration based on a poor performance or a bad “let down”? Do they throw the stuff at the visiting players since they are beating the daylights out of the home boys? Do we have to judge the class of a sporting nation based on its crowds’ behavior? It is an interesting topic to explore since it is difficult to come at an objective rationale behind those activities.

How many of us remember the fact that the wonderfully knowledgeable fans of Headingley threw the seat cushions inside the ground after seeing yet another dismal English performance in the summer of 1984 against the all conquering West Indies? Does that make the English supporters and the nation as pathetic? Haven’t we see the way European foot ball fans boo the national anthems of other nations in home matches which should constitute as disgrace of the highest order? We have also seen how the English foot ball hooligans have created mayhem inside and outside grounds all over the world.

Who can forget the fact that in the Eden Gardens test of 1976-77 against England a full stadium turned up for the final day’s play when only the last rites needed to be performed for India? How come the same people throw bottles into the ground when they sense defeat for the home team of late? From Frank Worrell to Richie Benaud the Indians have always idolized the visiting cricketers. Has nationalism become jingoism? Have the Indians become so patriotic that they will resort to throw anything at the opponents to make the home team win?

Is media hype a reason? May be the Indian fans are watching cricket in a generation wherein the cricketers are shown as out of the world super stars who can turn a mountain into a molehill on TV ads and other shows. It was not the case before in the 80s and 90s wherein the cricketers were looked upon as mortal super stars. With the economy growing and a bit more money in their pockets most Indians somehow want to have a short cut for success since they get such fantasy tales in the media from fields such as IT and other fields. They expect the cricketers also to perform an encore day in day out. May be they expect the cricketers to redeem the other failings of Indian society. When they see the team lose they indulge in stone throwing, arson and other aspects of vandalism which they believe symbolizes the modern defiant India. May be the Indian fans of 80s and early 90s were ready to accept defeat in life easily since they never believed they or their country could reach the pinnacle in any form. But the current set of people differs from that mindset. They believe their players can perform miracle and when they find out they can’t live up to the expectations, they stoop to a new low. I think it is a case of someone savoring success or trying to savor success for the first or first few times. In matured nations wherein the success is a walk of life the defeat will be accepted with a bit more grace. May be it is a case of a nation which is not used to success trying to savor the same.

I think as a nation we lack the sporting culture. What do I mean by sporting culture is to accept defeat and win on an equal footing. In a country like Australia they have so many games to support that they will have other avenues to celebrate even if they miss out on one. In India most people don’t follow even the domestic cricket properly which makes each international cricket game as if they it is an equivalent of a super bowl or a Foot ball world cup final. Like Diwali and other Indian festivals the cricket games come once in a year or once in two years and it almost becomes an impossible thought to taste defeat.

One has to see the facilities in the grounds in India. After 9/11 the security has become so much that people in India have to go to the grounds 3 to 4 hours before the start of the games. Most grounds don’t guarantee a confirmed seat even if they have a valid ticket. The authorities don’t allow water or any refreshments inside. The spectators brave the heat, dust, humidity and inhuman sitting arrangements to watch their stars perform. The Indian crowds in most ground are treated like cattle. This frustration gets added up when the national team loses the game.

I thought of comparing the Indian crowds with the Pakistani crowds. After all the people of both the countries speak the similar languages, live the same life styles and share a common culture. It is just a case study and not a tool to come to an objective conclusion.

There has been lot of talk in the media about how Pakistan has treated Indian cricketers and the fans well and how the Indians have failed to replicate the same. I think in the Indo-Pak analysis it has more to do with the national psyche and the mood of the nation. I have seen how the Pakistani crowds have reacted when we toured there in 1997, 1989, 1982-83 and 1978-79. In those tours the people have been nice when they see the players in the bus or in the hotel lobby. But inside the grounds the crowds were as hostile as you can get. In 1982-83 the crowds dug up the pitch in Karachi and in 1989 an ODI game has to be canceled since the crowd went wild. Who can forget those unforgettable scenes at Lahore in 1990 in the World cup Hockey tournament? The crowd behavior was so pathetic that the tournament director allowed India to boycott the tournament but the Indians played on gamely in the most hostile environment the sporting world has ever seen. Who can forget the fact that the Pakistanis ran to the streets to lit fire crackers when India lost every wicket during their chase in the 1996 WC semi finals at Calcutta? They were not cheering for Sri Lanka. They hated India to the core. Who can forget the way the people of Multan targeted Colin Croft with fruits and missiles in 1980? Then how come the Pakistani crowds were so hospitable and took the defeat so gracefully in 2004. Have they become matured overnight?

I have this theory in my mind. In the mid and late 80s when Pakistan used to travel to India for cricket games, the Indian crowds used to support Pakistan when they used to play other nations in Indian soil. Who can forget the amount of support they received at Nagpur when they played England in the semi finals of MRF Nehru tournament in 1989. I still remember seeing so many Pakistani flags at Lucknow when they played Sri Lanka. Even in the finals at EdenGardens the crowds supported them against West Indies. At the same time when Indian hockey team played France or Netherlands at Lahore the Pakistanis were so hostile and anti-Indian.

I believe it is a case of 1971 and 1998. From 1971 onwards most Pakistanis looked at Indians as a nation which has bisected them. They always had a fear psychosis that the larger neighbor might conquer the smaller neighbor one day. They had a fear that India had never accepted the two nation theory. May be that was reflected in the minds of cricket fans when they saw Indian teams. Come 1998 when Pakistan exploded the nuclear weapons the whole nation shed its inferior feeling towards India. They started to believe that they had the wherewithal to withstand against the Indians even in adversity. May be that made them relax in their minds which gets reflected in the sporting acts. It was also symbolic that Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore in 1999 to prove beyond any doubt that Pakistani sovereignty will never be questioned by anyone. After all the Indian tour of Pakistan in 2004 was the first tour to take place after 1998.

I would love to quote the 1996 EdenGardens, Kolkata test as an example. This test match between India and South Africa took place a year after the infamous 1996 WC semi finals between India and Sri Lanka. The famous ground was deprived any international games till that time and when the game was awarded the people were so conscious to make up for their boorish behavior in the last game. I still remember how they cheered Kirsten and Hudson piling up runs as if Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock were conducting a virtuoso. They also gave a standing ovation to Cronje and co when the team completed a victory lap after a thumping win over India. Is it fair to say that Kolkata crowd is very sportive based on that one incident?


(To be continued in the next post)

[Vijay Arumugam]

(Continued from the previous post)


Let us now use this analogy for Karachi and other Pakistani grounds. India has canceled so many tours to Pakistan before and they also made so much song and dance about security before agreeing to tour. People of Karachi in particular knew very well that the game had to take place without a hitch if they need to see any more international games. May be that was the reason why they were so sportive when we won the ODI game. After all I didn’t hear too many claps when England won that ODI game in Karachi in 2001 chasing 300 odd runs. So let us not pass the judgment on Karachi crowds before we see a few more games against India or any other opposition.

I still remember Wasim Akram’s interview with Simi Garewal in the TV Programme “Rendezvous” in 1999 when Pakistan toured India. Simi asked Akram about Chennai crowd’s wonderful clapping. Wasim replied “It was a great gesture and I expected boos and I was surprised to hear so much cheer”. When she asked whether Pakistan can reciprocate the same he said “You won’t get this in Lahore. May be in Karachi they might give. After all they didn’t give this cheer in New Delhi”. His point was places like Lahore and New Delhi were affected so much by the partition and other stuff it was difficult for people to cheer the opposition from across the border. From that conversation even in 1999 a Pakistani cricket captain didn’t expect the Pakistani crowd to be supportive of India.

Even the great Imran khan expressed his surprise during our tour to Pakistan in 2004. He said “I never expected to see Indian flags flying in Pakistani grounds during my life time”. So it was more of an exception rather than rule to see so much support for India in last year’s tour.

We saw many reports of how Pakistanis were hospitable towards the Indian guests at Lahore. We appreciate the wonderful gesture of the Lahorites. But how many of us read about the hospitality of people of Chandigarh and Mohali in 1999 when a few thousand Pakistani fans visited India. I still remember Wasim Akram thanking the people of Chandigarh for that gesture in the match presentation. Even in the current trip of Pakistan to India in 2005 we have seen many instances of Indians being very nice to the Pakistani visiting fans at Mohali and other places. Even in normal life when Pakistanis visit India they are treated well by the Indians. But we don’t read too much about the same. Why? After all it is the job of the journalists to jot down those aspects to report the same. It is unfortunate that Pakistani newspapers don’t allocate too many reporters for cricket coverage. Even the well respected and widely read Karachi based newspaper “Dawn” sends only one reporter to cover the whole series and that too only for half of the series. On the contrary when India toured Pakistan (or any other country) there are hordes of Indian journalists from newspapers, web sites, magazines and so many other sources. Most Indian newspapers send two reporters wherein one person will cover the game while the other person will write tour diaries and other snippets. Hence each incident which took place on that tour was magnified to such a level that they got highlighted and rightly so.

On the contrary the Indians had the notion of looking at Pakistan as a nation which was defeated till 1987. Then came the phase of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and reports started to appear in the press how the Pakistani backed militants are killing the Indian army and innocent civilians. It also coincided with the rise of religious extremism and jingoism in India. The pseudo patriotism preached by political parties such as RSS, VHP started to set in the minds of lots of Indians. The emerging economic clout along with this new found attitude started to make more Indians feel arrogant. Like how the Pakistanis had some kind of phobia/hatred towards their neighbors, the time period of 1989 – till date might be the turn of their Indian counterparts to have some kind of unpleasant attitude towards the visiting Pakistanis.

I am not suggesting for a moment that Pakistani crowds were bad in the past and the Indian crowds can follow suit. As I have stated before it was a privilege for all of us to read about the wonderful hospitality of Pakistanis in 2004 when we toured there. We thank Pakistan for the same. I am just trying to find out the psychology of people of India and Pakistan when they follow cricket with such fervor.

I am not able to come to a conclusion on this issue. It is also interesting to note the sequence whenever the Indian crowds have misbehaved. They were unruly when the West Indies toured India in 1994. They also did an encore when the Caribbeans visited us in 2002. Who can forget the racist remarks such as b**tard at Mumbai against Collins and Dillon? How can the people of a country wherein most of them are dark skinned have racism? It defies the logic.

I also remember the fact that the Indian crowds started the habit of throwing something even at the slightest provocation during the 1996 Titan cup series in India which featured South Africa and Australia. So we are not able to find a sequence in the Indian crowd’s behavior.

May be the current Indian crowds are spoiled by hearing comments such as “Indian crowds are wonderfully passionate” from the visiting commentators who are starved of seeing such big crowds in other parts of the world. May be they take the word “passionate” in a different context. May be they see lots of foot ball games and other sports on Satellite TV and they want to be as passionate as those folks. May be it is a simple case of getting a two minute fame on TV by throwing something onto the ground.

The jury is still out. But I can safely state one thing. Indian crowds must be arguably the most passionate in the world but they have a long way to go to be rated as the best or the most knowledgeable.

What can we do to improve the crowd behavior? We need to improve the facilities for spectators in the grounds so that they won’t be stressed mentally. In most cases it will take more time for a relaxed mind to lose its cool rather than a stressed one. The venues with troubled history should be slapped a two year ban so that the people will know the limits.

Let us hope they will not tarnish the image of the country henceforth.

Cheers,
Vijay

[vvvrulz]

First of all, welcome to the forums Vijay. Great post there, made for a very interesting read.

I too must admit I was suprised to see the reception Pakistan gave the Indians during the 2004 tour, and saw it as perhaps a sign of good things to come between the two nations. However, this was blunted by the final ODI when Pakistan returned the tour, with the players having to leave the field with crowd troubles.

I hate to say this, but it seems to be that the India supported are fickle, and will always remain fickle. They want to see their team win, and will boo otherwise, regardless of the quality of cricket. The roasting Simon Katich got for his 99 during the recent tour was bitterly disappointing.

In my opinion, they will never change, it is simply in their nature.

[imaginarydiva]

OH!

Sorry,thats all I could muster up.

[Zainub]

First and foremost I would also like to extent a very warm welcome to Vijay. Now to the actual topic of this thread, as Vijay points, there hasn't exactly been a steady, consistent pattern in the way crowds have reacted to defeat (and even victory I would say) in the sub-continent, only in this Indian tour we saw how crowd behavior varies from one part of India to the others. While on one end there was the warmth and love of places like Dharamshala (where we played a warm up game up here), there was on the other hand the impatience and over-eagerness of the crowds at places like Delhi and Kanpur.

While I would definitely agree that un-user friendliness of stadiums on both sides of the border is definitely one of the contributing factors to unacceptable crowd behavior, sometimes other factors like a team's general performance over that season also has a bearing. India, let's all be honest with our selves, did not have a productive last season, especially in the one-day game, which has been traditionally more of a favorite of the crowds here. Perhaps the crowd behavior towards the end of the tour was not merely because of the poor performance of the team against Pakistan, but a general frustration over India's underperformance throughout the season.

And then, you will always have a few of those people in every country that simply will go to any lengths to get their five minutes of fame - their idle minds are perfect devil’s paradise. Those are the kind of people you can do little to improve, because they have a problem with their mentalities. Fortunately though, I believe such people are in minority, and given the authorities can improve ground facilities and encourage good behaviors via proper marketing strategies, I'm positive that overall an mprovement can be made.

It strikes me that in a country where people take up so many things from watching television the BCCI has not so far taken up any plans to start a television campaign promoting good crowd behavior. I'm sure if the likes of Sachin and Dravid can spare a few days for such activities, may be even get a few Bollywood actors in the mix, and their messages, I'm certain will prompt people to behave better. After all if Sachin can appear in adds to encourage young kids to eat eggs, and a host of the other things, why should they not come out and do a campaign on encouraging good crowd behavior? You can sell anything with proper marketing strategies I believe.

As of the crowd behavior in 2004, I would say it was very much expected, people found it otherwise, but being part of that very crowd my self, and being part of the entire massive build up to that series before it started I could relate to an immense sense of positivism in the general crowd feeling. People were just looking forward to the cricket, there was initially to start with, less talk about who was going to win or lose, but simply lots of talk about the fact that we were finally going to be playing against each other in Pakistan. It had been 14 years let's not forget since an Indian team had last played a full tour of Pakistan, involving both tests and one-day internationals.

You simply cannot underestimate the power of the "feel good factor". At the diplomatic levels between the two governments a lot of confidences building measures have been carried out, and that has generally increased the optimism most Pakistanis today have of our relations with India. Last year that had a direct bearing on how the crowds reacted. Everyone wanted to show that they wanted peace, and henceforth the disappointment at losing in cricket was less animated (although Miandad would argue not, he lots his job after all!)

[vvvrulz]

Actually, you're bang on there Zainub. These stars are the only people India will listen to, so really its up to them to make a stand, you're absolutely right.

[imaginarydiva]

I couldn't argue with that Zainub.That was brilliant indeed.But i have to say this.Well,I guess I WOULD pretty much qualify as those hyper fans in the sense that I do pretty crazy things like walking around a temple 100 odd times,special prayers,etc.I can't explain how,but we fans WORSHIP the cricketers literally.

You said."May be the current Indian crowds are spoiled by hearing comments such as “Indian crowds are wonderfully passionate” from the visiting commentators who are starved of seeing such big crowds in other parts of the world. May be they take the word “passionate” in a different context. May be they see lots of foot ball games and other sports on Satellite TV and they want to be as passionate as those folks. May be it is a simple case of getting a two minute fame on TV by throwing something onto the ground."

I would like to point out THIS.How many of the indian viewers actually understand english moreover with an accent?Football is very restricted in its veiwership and that is DEFINITELY not the reason.Other games are also minimal in their impacts.All I can say is,even though I personally wouldn't resort to such thingts i know a lot of people who would.And the ONLY reason is frustration.Its not about an anti-opposition mood.Its only because we hate to see our stars fail.Some people take extreme measures.I must add that,I am not justifying what they do.I am simply giving an explanation as to why it happens.

Another VERY important thing is that a cricket match to us is MUCH more than a game.Because to us its not about Saurav Ganguly XI versus some other set of XI.It is somehow viewed as India versus another country.The whole pride of the nation seems to be at stake and patriotic fervour drives people into a frenzy.Its almost like a war.Inspite of the whole diplomatic aspect,all the goodwill is left OFF the field.Once the players enter the field,the competitiveness overshadows everything else.

One more thing is that just because a FEW people do something stupid,does the blame need to be pushed to the whole fan community?

Somehow,I cant help but recollect an incident.Remember the crowd reaction when Steve Waugh in has last test match was caught by Sachin?The crowd did express its displeasure.Don't you think it was more out of frustration at Steve getting out than any kind of hatred towards Indians.

I guess we are pretty much vociferous in our passion.I don't quite think the infrastructure matters.No matter how pathetic the enivornment is,we are ready to brave everything because that is how much we love the game.

I don't know where you got the Idea of Indians not being interested in domestic cricket.True,the BCCI does not do enough to promote it.But many people do have basic knowledge about cricket at the domestic level.

In the end,all I can say is that MAYBE we are comparitively,a LOT more passionate about the game.Some people DO go overboard but that doesn't mean that the rest are devils.As for the fans being shown in bad light...I doubt most of us even give a damn about it.

[imaginarydiva]

Didn't you know that there have been times when we exhanged roles and made the stars listen to us?

[Zainub]

Well that's the question in point here Imaginary, we are trying to determine why people are so passionate about the game so as to think of it as war, when it is clearly not war. It is competetive sport, where one team will win, another will lose, somestime there will be no result - wars are not like that, people are killed, it's down right cut throught stuff. There is plenty of difference in between war and sport, and most logical, even headed and literate people will be able to see that. Of coarse as you say, the freak glory hunters who will cause trouble just to get in the news are people in minority, and they should not tarnish the reputation of fans over all.

[imaginarydiva]

Originally Posted by Zainub Razvi

Well that's the question in point here Imaginary, we are trying to determine why people are so passionate about the game so as to think of it as war, when it is clearly not war. It is competetive sport, where one team will win, another will lose, somestime there will be no result - wars are not like that, people are killed, it's down right cut throught stuff. There is plenty of difference in between war and sport, and most logical, even headed and literate people will be able to see that.

The first sentence is something that I might refer to a psychiatrist.As for the difference between war and sport,I was just not talking about the DIFFERENCE,I was actually talking about the similarities.By that I mean that the intensity of the passions during a match and war.Then again,war is about vanquishing oppositions through physical means while a match is in a different format.Howver,as I said,I am not talking about the differences.The similarity is the passion to see one's team win and this passion ,often,in both cases reaches near religious frenzy.And somehow when passions are running so high,how would people even have the time or even thought to think.Emotions do overshadow the ability to discern.And that for good or bad is true,because we are mere HUMANS.And then again we dont do it EVERYTIME.